Vivant Denon

Dominique Vivant de Denon (4 January 1747-27 April 1825) was Director of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France from 1802 to 1814, and a notable Egyptologist and French diplomat.

Biography
Dominique Vivant de Denon was born in Chalon-sur-Saone, France on 4 January 1747 to a noble family, and he would use his middle name "Vivant" as his first name and would drop the "de" from his surname "De Denon" to hide his noble birth during the French Revolution. Louis XV of France appointed him as ambassador to the Russian Empire at St. Petersburg, and he would also serve as a diplomat in Italy for years. During the French Revolution, his friend Jacques-Louis David saved him from being executed during the Reign of Terror, and he accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his Egyptian Campaign in 1798. Denon wrote a two-volume work called Journey in Lower and Upper Egypt about his travels, and he served as Director of the Musee Napoleon (now the Louvre) from 1802 to 1814. He was writing an illustrated history of ancient and modern art when he died in 1825.